On Foreign Policy, Rivals Differing in Style but Often Similar in Substance

WASHINGTON — Representative Paul D. Ryan set out Thursday to turn what the White House considers one of President Obama’s strongest assets into a liability, asserting that his administration’s foreign policy was “unraveling.” But from Libya and Iran to Afghanistan and Syria, Mr. Ryan offered proposals that differed from those of Mr. Obama in nuance rather than substance.

Defending Mr. Obama’s record, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. repeatedly demanded that Mr. Ryan and his running mate, Mitt Romney, explain what they would do differently. Twice, he criticized Mr. Ryan for “loose talk,” about how to stop Iran from producing a nuclear weapon and about how best to aid the rebels in Syria.

“There’s nothing more they say we should do than we’ve done. Nothing,” Mr. Biden said after Mr. Ryan criticized the administration’s pressure campaign against Iran for not slowing Tehran from its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. “Facts matter.”

Mr. Ryan said that the president had undercut a close American ally, Israel, and dithered while Iran’s security forces cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, which empowered the Iranian mullahs. It was a pattern, he said, that characterized the president’s approach to the world — enabling a dictator to cling to power in Syria, outsourcing foreign policy decisions to the United Nations and giving Russia a veto over American policies.

On specific alternatives, Mr. Ryan was often vague. On Syria, he talked of reaching out more aggressively to opposition forces and criticized the administration for once referring to President Bashar al-Assad as a “reformer.”

The debate was almost as striking for the areas of agreement between Mr. Ryan and Mr. Biden. They agreed that the timeline for Iran to acquire a bomb was probably longer than the level of tension over Iran would suggest. And they agreed that the United States should transfer security control to the Afghans by the end of 2014, though Mr. Ryan stopped short of saying that American troops would be withdrawn by then.

For the candidates, it was the first face-to-face exchange on foreign policy, and while it was often spirited, it underscored the basic limitations that American leaders face on the world stage, regardless of their party. When Mr. Biden said that the United States could not afford another land war in the Middle East, Mr. Ryan nodded in assent. Challenged by Mr. Biden, Mr. Ryan ruled out sending ground troops to Syria.

Mr. Ryan took the offensive immediately when the moderator, Martha Raddatz, asked about the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Mr. Ryan accused the White House of changing its story and refusing to acknowledge for days that it was an organized terrorist attack. He also said that the State Department failed to provide Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attack, with a Marine detachment to protect him, even though he claimed the ambassador to France gets such protection.

Mr. Biden defended the administration’s handling of the episode, saying it was disclosing information provided to it by the intelligence agencies. He placed the responsibility for the changing narrative squarely on those agencies.

But Mr. Biden appeared to contradict other American officials when he declared that the administration did not know about requests for more security in Libya. On Wednesday, two former security officials in Libya testified before a House committee that they repeatedly requested more security, but that the requests were denied by the State Department.

The vice president tried to pivot from the messy aftermath of the Libya attack to a broader defense of Mr. Obama’s record, describing him as having a “steady hand” and a “clear vision.” Mr. Obama, he said, kept his promise to end the war in Iraq and made the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden a top priority from his first day in office.

Going into the debate, the contrast between Mr. Biden and Mr. Ryan was stark: the vice president has immersed himself in foreign policy for decades, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Obama handed him the Iraq portfolio in 2009, recognizing the many trips he made to Iraq. Mr. Ryan, by contrast, cut his teeth on the House Budget Committee, and freely admits his experience in foreign affairs is thin.

Yet on Thursday, Mr. Ryan demonstrated fluency with at least the phrases of foreign policy, speaking of the Quetta Shura and the Haqqani group in Pakistan. He said he had drawn his views of Afghanistan from a visit there in 2002. He and Mr. Biden got into a squabble over how best to secure Regional Command East, a dangerous military zone in eastern Afghanistan.

He also took a swipe at Mr. Obama’s chilly relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, noting that the president opted to appear on “The View,” a daytime talk show, rather than meet with Mr. Netanyahu when he attended the United Nations General Assembly last month.

A version of this article appears in print on October 12, 2012, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: On Foreign Policy, Rivals Differing in Style but Often Similar in Substance. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe